


Stay With Me

by ourdarkspirits



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 10:25:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3324083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourdarkspirits/pseuds/ourdarkspirits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake and Cassandra go on a mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay With Me

An unusual increase in violence in a small city in Poland had Cassandra Cillian and Jake Stone arriving on site to investigate what was increasing the crime rates in a typically quiet town. It had to be magic, because it had shown up in both their clippings books. 

Before leaving the Annex, where they continued to work, they had come up with a list of possible sources for the ill will spreading in the city. Without going there, they couldn’t pinpoint any possible sources. So, feeling like they were going in blind, Cassandra and Jake arrived in Poland. 

When, after a day, they still couldn’t pinpoint a source, they decided to find a place to stay and start again in the morning. The next day they had more luck, finding an old shutdown entrance into the catacombs below the city. Cassandra saw patterns and Jake was able to pinpoint the architecture in a historical context. It gave them everything they needed to know about what they were up against.

They were in the library when they figured out what was causing the problems. Well, actually it was Jake.

“There,” he exclaimed. “This one.”

He pulled out the list they had made in the Annex and showed her what they were dealing with.

“Oh,” Cassandra nodded in understanding, “the anti-Santa.”

“Yeah. I- what?” Jake stuttered in confusion. “Anti-Santa?”

“Yeah it’s like Santa, right? An avatar, but it spreads ill will instead of good will,” she clarified.

“Yeah, I- yeah. It makes sense, just, hold on. You watch Supernatural?” Jake’s tone was a little incredulous.

“Mm hmm,” she hummed. “I discovered I like watching fantasy and sci-fi, when my tumor gets bad. I can turn off my brain. Last time it was bad I found a Supernatural marathon on TV.”

“Huh,” was Jake’s only response as he processed that information.

“Anyway, we should get going,” Cassandra said as a means to change the subject.

Jake nodded and they began to pack up their books. As soon as they were ready, Cassandra led the way to an old catacombs entrance they had found the day before. Everything in their research indicated that the avatar (anti-Santa) would be living under the ground, and what better place than a closed-off portion of the catacombs, untouched for centuries?

“Only one of us can go in,” Cassandra mused as she examined the entrance. 

“It should be me,” Jake supplied immediately. 

He knew her capabilities, but he still didn’t want to think about her going into a still relatively unknown situation. They knew what the magical source was, but that didn’t mean they knew how to defeat it. 

“No, it shouldn’t,” Cassandra countered, frustration beginning to color her voice, “I’m the one who can do the math to stop the avatar.”

“Cassie,” Jake started, but Cassandra cut him off.

“You know my skills are better suited for this than yours, and as soon as his hold on this city is dissolved you’ll be able to follow me in,” Cassandra reasoned.

Jake didn’t like it. He really didn’t want her going in on her own, but he couldn’t argue with her. There would be a pattern, something indicating how to dissolve the avatar’s hold on the city, one she was in a better way to see than him.

“What if you hallucinate, focus on the wrong memory?” Jake asked.

“I won’t,” Cassandra answered, “You know better than anyone that I’m getting better.”

“I know. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, Cassie,” he said, looking directly at her, willing her to understand.

“I’ll be fine, Jake,” Cassandra tried to soothe him.

With those words, Cassandra turned back to the entrance to the catacomb. In a matter of minutes she had found how to open the door. Before walking into the catacombs, she turned back to Jake.

“Wish me luck,” she said, trying for bright.

He nodded, unable to respond. Intellectually, he knows she’ll be fine. She’s gone on missions on her own. (No matter that he’d been worried any time he’d known she’d gone out alone.) He knows what she’s capable of. He doesn’t want to think too hard on why it is that he worries about her when she works alone. He doesn’t want to think about how much he knows it’s going to hurt when she’s gone. 

By the time he shook himself out of that spiral, Cassandra was gone and the door had shut behind her, leaving him alone outside at loose ends. He longed to be doing something, but Cassandra was finishing the job. 

 

The tunnel Cassandra had entered widened into a chamber at its end. It appeared empty and Cassandra cautiously began looking for clues to how to defeat the avatar. It was as she was rounding to the back of the chamber that a shadowy figure materialized.

“Cassandra Cillian,” it said.

Cassandra jumped. “How do you know my name?”

“I know everything about the occupants of this city, Miss Cillian,” it intoned, “even the temporary ones.”

Cassandra turned away, resolutely ignoring the entity sharing the space with her. She was determined not to let it into her head, not to let it stop her from dissolving his hold on the city above them.

“Cassandra Cillian, the woman who betrayed her friends,” it taunted.

Still she ignored him.

The figured hummed, “No. That’s not it. You betrayed your friends, but you found ways to make it up.”

She had discovered the pattern, knew what she needed to do, but the figure spoke again.

“Still, you worry. You worry that your parents are right. That you can’t be loved, that no one will miss you when you are gone. You long for a chance at life, but what if no one wants you?”

Cassandra found it harder to ignore him. She had worked through the guilt of betraying her friends, not because she was all right with it, but because she had never stopped trying to atone for it. He had found her more deep-seated fears and was exploiting them. She was frozen.

“They’re right of course. With the possibility that you may hallucinate, pass out or even die at any moment, you place a heavy burden on those you call your friends,” he carried on, “It would be a relief, to be no longer burdened with the uncertainty you bring.”

“No,” she whispered, frozen in place.

“Oh yes,” he taunted her.

“No,” she said, louder this time, and she rushed forward, destroying the source of his power.

The shadowy form evaporated with a sound like rushing wind and pain and Cassandra collapsed to the ground. The headache, this time, was the worst she had had in a while, and she concentrated on counting down, breaking herself out of the spiral, the effect of the math she had been doing while the shadow figure had been taunting her, doing its best to stop her. 

 

She was still curled in on herself on the ground when Jake ran into the room a few minutes later. As soon as the seal on the door had broken, he had sprinted inside to find her.

Jake knelt down beside her. “Cassie. Cassie, honey, I’m here.”

He gently lifted her face to him, careful, not letting his overwhelming worry bleed into his actions. He stroked her hair back. 

“Come on, Cassie, darlin’. Look at me,” he pleaded with her.

Slowly she worked her way out of her head, and her eyes focused on Jake. 

“I’m fine, Jake,” she said, pulling away and brushing her hair out of her face.

She wasn’t fine, he could tell, but he didn’t push. Physically, at least, she seemed fine, but she was closed off. He couldn’t find a way to talk to her, still unsure of what they were. To him, she was his best friend, even if he didn’t want to evaluate the extent of his feelings for her. So instead he walked with her as they left the catacombs.

“I think I just want to go to back to my room,” she said as the walked out into the open. “We can go back to the Annex tomorrow.” 

Jake nodded. “Ok, Cassie.”

She stiffened at the sound of her nickname on her lips. She couldn’t stop think about what that thing had said down in the catacombs. It was permeating her thoughts, and all she wanted to do was be alone. 

They walked to their hotel together, neither saying anything. Cassandra kept her arms folded across her front, making herself small, creating a distance between them that Jake couldn’t hope to cross. When they got to the hall where their rooms were, she entered her own room and shut the door behind her without saying a word. 

All she wanted to do was curl up on cry. Instead she turned on the TV, hoping to find something showing in English and curled up on the bed. Not long after she heard a tap on her door. 

Jake had been pacing outside of her door trying to decide what to do. Part of him wanted to find out what was wrong while the other part told him to leave it alone. She didn’t want company and he needed to respect her need to be alone. 

He was momentarily stunned when the door opened a crack and her face peeked out.

“Cassie, darlin’, tell me what’s wrong,” Jake said. 

“Nothing’s wrong, Jake,” Cassandra sighed. 

“Please,” Jake pleaded. Now that she had opened the door to him, he could admit that he needed to know she would be ok. 

“Fine,” she said as she opened the door wider to let him in. 

“What happened down there?” Jake asked.

“It tried to stop me from destroying it and it almost succeeded,” Cassandra admitted. 

“If that was all that had happened, you wouldn’t be this shaken,” he pushed.

“I’m fine, Jake.” Cassandra was shutting him out.

“No, you’re not, darlin’. You’re hurtin’ and I can’t figure out why.”

“Please don’t call me that.” Sadness seeped into Cassandra’s voice, and Jake’s heart broke just a little.

“Ok, I won’t, if you don’t like it,” Jake told her.

Before she could stop herself, Cassie said, “No, it’s not that I don’t like it. It’s that I like it too much, but it hurts.”

“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously approaching her, like he would a nervous horse.

She didn’t back away from him and he considered that an improvement. 

“I mean, I like that you call me honey and darling but it’s not fair, Jake.” Cassandra wasn’t looking at him, instead staring resolutely at the floor.

Jake gently tipped her chin up so she would meet his eyes. “Why?”

“I like you, Jake, and you don’t even trust me.”

“Is that what this is about?” Jake asked, incredulous, “Cassie, I trust you.”

“But you didn’t want me going in alone,” Cassie said.

“’Cause I don’t know what I’d do if I lost ya, Cassie.”

He just barely caught himself before using a term of endearment, although he was pretty sure now that she didn’t want him calling her that because she thought he didn’t like her, at least not as much as she liked him. It made him feel a little bit bolder about addressing how he felt. 

“Oh,” was all Cassandra could see.

“Yeah, oh. Is that what this is about darlin’?” he asked.

She nodded thoughtfully. “Sort of. It found all of my insecurities. Made me feel unwanted.”

He wanted to hold her so bad, but he still wasn’t sure enough that she wanted that, so instead he kept his distance and said, “It was wrong, Cassie.”

Cassie nodded again, tears shining in her eyes. Then she rushed forward throwing her arms around Jake. He slowly brought his arms up around her, doing his best to offer comfort.

“Stay with me tonight?” Cassandra asked hopefully.

He couldn’t help but feel relief that she was letting him in, letting him prove that the thing down in the catacombs had been wrong. 

“Yeah, darlin’, I’ll stay with you tonight,” he said, holding Cassandra a little closer.  


Cassandra pulled away from him, and he felt a brief moment of panic, but he needn’t have worried. Her hand slid down his arm to his hand and she pulled him the short distance to her bed. She pulled back the covers and lay down. Jake followed her and curled around her, his front pressed to her back, arms wrapped protectively around her. After the difficulties of the day, it was easy to fall asleep in the comfort of each other’s arms and their changing relationship.

**Author's Note:**

> The conversation about the anti-Santa is in reference to Supernatural, Season 3 Episode 8 (the Christmas episode) which redbells thought of when I mentioned that the antagonist was like an anti-Santa when describing the plot of this story.


End file.
